If you’ve been following local news the last few weeks you know that today, thousands of teachers are rallying in Raleigh – part of a coordinated campaign pushing for increased funding for our state schools.
And while these events represent a critical opportunity to discuss the growing needs of our students, schools, and, more broadly, our education infrastructure, today also provides a chance for North Carolinians to pause to acknowledge the tremendous contribution our state’s public and private education systems make – year after year – to both the economic and social well-being of our state.
Every day, at all the levels of the education continuum, students benefit from our state’s exemplary education programs. And every day highly-skilled, dedicated educators work tirelessly for those students.
It is these quiet victories that affirm our belief in the power of education and motivate leaders like those on the myFutureNC Commission to consider how we can capitalize on our individual, local, and regional strengths to build a statewide system that ensures every North Carolinian has the opportunity to earn a degree or credential leading to a family-sustaining wage.
That’s why myFutureNC is making stops in each of the eight prosperity zones to learn from educators, parents, and concerned citizens about the educational achievements of their regions. The next – albeit more challenging – step will be to leverage those successes to form the fabric of the state’s educational attainment plan.
You are invited to join the listening tour this afternoon as it rolls into Jacksonville City Hall. There are also upcoming opportunities to join regional conversations on:
- June 14 at H. Murdock Research Institute in Kannapolis
- July 12 at Cherokee Central School in Qualla Boundary
- July 18 at Randolph Community College in Asheboro
If you aren’t able to join one of the remaining myFutureNC listening sessions, the Commission invites you to share your voice using this survey.
The contribution individual actions and ideas make towards our collective education potential cannot be understated. The more voices that are captured in our attainment plan, the more equipped myFutureNC will be to help North Carolina chart a course towards increasing attainment of all students in all corners of the state.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the Hunt Institute. It has been posted with the author’s permission.
